Congratulations to NIAF Member Patricia Badia-Johnson’s book Orienta… She Is the Dance, which is crafted around her mother’s autobiography. A young Italian American woman during the Great Depression, Orienta became a talented dancer which supported her family during the time period’s hardships.

The novel is a rare female coming-of-age story, the distilled product of facts and imagination, where second-generation struggles to fit between two worlds are codified and finally solved. Orienta’s personal ambivalence is developed not only in terms of ethnicity, but also in terms of a special vocation, and job—she was first of all a dancer. Badia-Johnson includes her mother’s personal writings and photos as well. Available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3cZGCNz.